European Union countries are preparing to include defense companies from countries outside the 27-member union in their joint purchases in the defense industry. According to experts, France’s withdrawal of its long-standing objections could pave the way for Turkey, as well as the US, UK and Israel, to export defense to the region.
Brussels is preparing to pave the way for imports from outside the European Union in the defense industry after France backed down after a year of objections. According to a report in the Financial Times, the EU plans to extend defense subsidies to non-EU countries and spend up to 35 percent of the EU’s defense funds on defense products from countries outside the 27-member union in order to reduce the dependence of the domestic arms industry on the US.
Under the EU’s proposed European Defense Investment Plan (EDIP), France opposes purchases from defense companies from countries including the US, the UK, Israel and Turkey, and has argued for strategic autonomy and defense purchases only from European companies. This month, however, Paris changed its stance, according to two officials who spoke to the FT. While lobbying the new US president, Donald Trump, not to reduce military support to the EU, the difficulty of excluding US companies from European defense purchases is one of the main reasons for the backtracking, according to sources.
The EDIP program, which was proposed in February 2024, requires the approval of all 27 capitals of the Union and the approval of the European Parliament for it to enter into force. This program would allow the Union to establish a common defense industry and joint arms purchases for Europe. It is also reported that many EU capitals are putting political pressure on Turkey to increase the budget of the program, which is currently projected to spend €1.5 billion until 2027.
Good news for Turkey, experts say
Jens Bastian, an expert at the Berlin-based Center for Applied Turkish Studies, told Deutsche Welle that the developments are good news for Turkey. Noting that there is no political compromise yet, Bastian said that if a compromise is reached, defense companies from the US, UK, Israel and Turkey could be included in European defense tenders. Also speaking to Deutsche Welle, Samuel Doveri Versterbye, Director of the European Neighborhood Council, a think tank, said it was good news that the draft did not include a specific exclusion clause for Turkey. “Before the draft was published, there was speculation that France was trying to include some specific wording to exclude Turkish companies, but that didn’t happen, Turkey was not excluded,” Versterbye said. This is good news for now.”
The EU, which has increased its defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aims to increase spending from the common budget to strengthen its defense industry and strengthen its strategic autonomy after the election of Trump, who wants to reduce military aid to Europe in the US. Poland, which borders NATO member Ukraine, is the strongest proponent of the idea that EU countries should further increase their defense spending. Poland is also calling for EU countries to contribute to the Eastern Shield program, which would strengthen border defense and air surveillance systems to enhance military defenses on its borders with Belarus and Russia.
